Sunday, 15 July 2012

Chocolate and stout cupcakes

I don’t like drinking beer of any kind, but I am rather
partial to baking with beer, particularly with chocolate.This recipe uses stout and adds a rich depth
to the chocolate – you wouldn’t know it was stout but you’d know something extra
was there.I say this to ease the minds
of fellow beer-haters!

Like many women, I am an emotional shopper and rather than
go for the obvious choice of Guinness, my eye was drawn to the beautiful bottle
of March of the Penguins stout, made by a microbrewer (Williams Bros BrewingCo) in
Alloa, Scotland. What can I say? Who could resist the penguins?

The frosting for these cupcakes is incredibly simple – just two
ingredients – but works perfectly in flavour and texture. The dark, rich, moist cupcakes carry the
light whippy frosting perfectly. The
frosting needs nothing else, not even vanilla...and how often do I say
that? (Answer: never! Except for today!)

I know I’m banging on about frosting a lot lately, but I’ve
been trying different things; I wouldn’t exactly say I am bored with
buttercream but it’s nice to discover all the alternatives out there. This one is heavenly – like a softer,
creamier ice cream.

The dark, rich cupcake topped with the creamy white frosting
resembles a glass of stout...but with lots of chocolaty sugary goodness thus
better!

On an unrelated note, I was lucky enough to be invited to
the LakelandChristmas
preview this week. Wow! And if I can just repeat: wow! I am saving up my pennies already as I saw so
many things I will be buying. In the
style of the Generation Game conveyor belt memory test bit, here are some of
the things I want: speech bubble cookie cutters, topsy turvy cake pans,
Christmas pudding plate, bowl and jug, slender rolling pins with Christmas
designs on them so that when you roll out the icing it embosses it, cute little
ice cream bowls and matching spoons, cheese making equipment, giant biscuit
cutters in the shape of Christmas baubles with little cut out panels, Russian
doll salt and pepper set...and did I mention the awesome, yet affordable,
copper pans? I am going to have to be a
very good little girl right up until Christmas for Father Christmas to deem me
worthy of all those goodies!

Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper cases – use deep cupcake or
muffin cases rather than shallow fairy cake cases.

Place the sugar and butter in a bowl and beat together until
fluffy and light.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding some of the flour if
it looks like it might curdle.

Measure out the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of
soda.

In a jug, measure out the stout and stir in the cocoa
powder. NB. Let the head on the stout
settle before you take your final reading of the measurement - you will need to
top it up in the jug as it settles.

Pour some of the stout mixture into the batter and beat.

Add a couple of tablespoons of the flour mix and beat.

Continue until all the ingredients are incorporated.

Spoon the batter into the paper cases and bake for
approximately 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the batter comes out
clean. Sadly, I can’t tell you how long
mine took as I forgot to set an oven timer....doh!

Leave to cool on a wire rack, and remove from the cupcake
pan as soon as you can safely handle the cakes.

When the cakes are cool you can make the frosting (you can also
make the cakes a day before frosting if you wish): Place the mascarpone in a
bowl and beat to soften.

These look great. I love using cream cheese in frosting and have tried mascarpone before. I think it gives a lovely fresh taste and stops the frosting becoming too sweet. It's great for piping, too. :)

I too tend to turn to a glass (okay bottle) of wine rather than a bottle of beer but there is something rather fab about beer based cake! And thank you for the heads up about Lakeland- I was in their Stratford branch earlier post Olympics, it was like letting a 5 year old loose in a sweet store!

Read this great novel!

Look at this great website

Follow my ambitious attempt to find a recipe for a cake, biscuit, pie or tart for every single one of the 39 traditional English counties!

The Caked Crusader and Boy Wonder

Cartoon by Cakeyboi

About Me

So, the answer to the question you’re all asking: who am I? Well, a superhero never reveals their identity. I think it’s stated somewhere in the contract when you sign up for superhero-dom. Let’s just call me THE CAKED CRUSADER. By day (and night if I’m being honest) a mild-mannered City professional, but at weekends I become THE CAKED CRUSADER. Tirelessly fighting anti-cake propaganda and cake-related injustices – for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS NEEDS CAKE (we’ll just skip over the fact that it’s usually me).

Batman’s got the batmobile, batcave etc. Superman does just great what with being able to fly and being really strong. Spiderman’s got that web thing going on. But I have better than them. For I have a credit card and could get one of these:

The purpose of my blog is simple – to spread the word that CAKE IS GOOD.Yes, it is calorific; that is why it tastes so nice.Yes, too much of it is bad for you; that’s what ‘too much’ means.Yes, we’re all told to eat healthily and we know that we should. But ask yourself this – and look very deeply into your soul before answering – when has a cup of tea and a carrot ever cheered you up? However, put that carrot into a cake and happiness will ensue. Quod erat demonstrandum – CAKE IS GOOD.

This site will catalogue cakes I have unleashed unto the world and my thoughts thereon.

By the way, I will never recommend how many portions you should get out of a cake because we’re all different. Plus, it will be very embarrassing when I say it serves 4 and you get 20 portions out of it.

WARNING: Too much time spent on this blog may cause hunger.

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About Me

I am a 40-something Chartered Accountant working in the square mile.
My main hobbies at the moment are baking, and setting the world record for the number of cake tins owned by one person.
I spend far too much time watching Spongebob Squarepants and would love to try a Krabby Patty...I know, I know - it's not real.